Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Julie out of Paraguay- can you help?

Hello Friends and Family,
As you know, I'm no longer in Paraguay... for the moment, but I am still trying to get resources together for the project I was working on the last couple months I was in Paraguay, my library project. My community put together a library committee and has worked hard to organize themselves and create an application for the funds. We were awarded 840 dollars from a Peace Corps library fund. We have created a budget that includes library shelves, tables, chairs, a desk, and books. Our plan was to get the state government to donate computers and the embassies to donate more books.

How can you help?
1. It's looking harder and harder to get computers donated from the state and I figured some of you out there might have laptops that you don't use anymore because you have replaced them with something newer. So my question is, do you have any laptops that still work but have replaced and are no longer using? Laptops would be preferred so that I can transport them myself, since I won't have much to bring back with me to Paraguay.

2. Books in Spanish would also be appreciated; these could be for any age group on any subject. Anything in Spanish would be greatly appreciated.

3. For a separate library project, called 'mobile libraries' I'm looking for any old backpacks that people are willing to donate to me. This project is still in the planning stages, but I think it should be pretty easy to get off the ground. Basically, I'm looking to make 'mobile libraries' for each grade level, which will just be a backpack with books appropriate for each reading level. This program targets schools in the rural areas, who don't have access to many books or school materials and tend to have lower literacy rates and most do not continue on to higher education. Each school will get a backpack at a time for an allotted amount of time. After the students have had a sufficient amount of time with them at one school, they will pass them to the next school until each school in the 'companias' or rural areas of my time have had a chance to read the books.

That's all for now!! Thanks for keeping up with me and if you want to know more about the projects or would like to help out in other ways, contact me!! I'm sure most of you have my contact info, but my email address is Juliebe8@gmail.com

Thanks! Much Love!!
Julie